Candida Isolation from Stools of HIV/AIDS Patients

Abstract

Candida is a saprophyte in the human respiratory tract, gastro intestinal tract and also in the debris under the nail. In patients with compromised immunity such as HIV-AIDS, Candida is able to cause infection, in this case oral candidosisor esophagitis. In this study fungi were isolated from the stools of HIV/AIDS patients. Samples consisting of 95 diarrheic stools from HIV/AIDS patients were investigated for the yeast especially Candida spp. The stools were inoculated onto Sabouraud dextrose agar then the fungi were identified using morphological methods and Chromagar medium. Yeast colonies were found in 71 (74,74%) out of 95 samples from which Candida was 42 (44,21%), Geotrichum 24 (25,26%), and mixed of Candida and Geotrichum 3 (3,16%), Rhodotorula and Trichosporon 1(1,05%) each. Species of Candida were identified as C. albicans, C. tropicalis, C. krusei, C. guilliermondii, C. glabrata, C. lusitaniae and C. kefyr. Although Candida could be isolated from the diarrheic stools of HIV/AIDS patients but its role on the cause of diarrhea is still questionable.

Keywords

• Candida
• Stool
• AIDS